Left my run late today and I nearly didn’t venture out at all. However I set out with the purpose of doing a circular run around Fornham but changed my mind and opted instead for a hill session.My recent stock take of the year showed that I am avoiding the hills so I thought it was time to hit this head on.

I ran up to County Upper School and returned to Beetons Way and it was only then that I decided to do some hills. Initially feeling tired I didn’t record my times for the first 5 intervals so I only have 5 times for my interval climbs which were as follows

55 secs, 56 secs, 54 secs, 53 secs and last one a quick 47 seconds. I picked my feet up on the last one concentrating on shorter steps and this seemed to lead to a quicker time. I ran back down the hill in about the same time giving me a minute recovery each time.

Below – The view along Westley Rd towards the Gibralter Barracks.

Below – This is Beetons Way looking down the hill. Ok it isn’t the biggest of hills but it is steep enough to give you about 50 seconds of fun running up it!

On a recent run along Kings Road I had to stop fairly often to take pictures of former shops and pubs as this road is very much changed. A very interesting book by Gerry Nixon on the Old Beer Houses of Bury St Edmunds makes the point that there were 4 pubs in this road but the last one closed back in 1991.

The Cricketers Inn and The Butchers Arms were doing business when this road was then known as Field Lane. The road then became known as Cemetary Road aptly named as it does lead at its western end to the large town cemetary. The Soldiers Home and the Wheatsheaf were the other pubs that formerly graced this road.

One of the corner shops I regulalry used to visit was this ivy clad one . Anyone know the name? I always remembered it as a fairly large shop a bit of an aladdins cave with all the sweets and ice creams you could want especially penny blacks and licarice sherbert dabs. I believe it had a short life as a shop selling glass at one point.

Another shop was on this corner of Kings Road and Mill Road near Chalk Road. For a while this became a hairdressers. Again any remember the name of this shops?I can rember buying ice creams here. The entrance was directly through the grey coloured bricks where there is a window know. My next stop was here. At the top of Chalk Road is this cream coloured building which is now a hairdressers but was once the Wheatsheaf. I do remember going in here when I first felt I wouldn’t be challenged about my age when going into pubs.It closed in 1981 but I do remember one Christmas venturing in here and there as an accordion player and some folk singing. I think as a young lad we generally took the mick but looking back there was obviously a great tradition which time has killed.

Just beyond this was the entrance to Bury Town Football Ground. I was a regular at the Kings Road ground for many years watching and playing football and selling programmes here. I wish I had had a camera then and now had photographs of this ground.

The next pub to close along Kings Road was this one below. I am not sure now if this was the Cricketers Inn or the Butchers Arms ?

Many people who visit Bury will travel along Kings Road and then via Prospect Row to the car park behind Woolworths. The pub I remember in Prospect Row was the Duke of Welington which is this flint stone building below which is now a day centre. The Duke closed its doors in 1986.

Even know in taking these pictures of Kings Road I know I haven’t photographed the newsagent Saunders. It just shows what a lot can change in one road.

The course: Setting out from the near the water tower in Bury St Edmunds I ventured down to the Spread Eagle and then out on the Horsecroft Road. At the Hardwick Hall I surprised some one taking a video of some diary cows. The road is fairly quiet apart from farm traffic this morning there was a farm trailer carrying 3-4 farm workers driven by a tractor along the road. They seemed to be workers possibly from Poland.

Keep running straight past Horsecroft Farm and Hawstead Lodge until you arrive in Pinford End. Here there is a fork in the road the road up hill towards Whepstead but instead keep left along the Church Road. You soon pass the church and farm and instead of venturing down hill to Hawstead Green turn left to Pound Green.

Past Hawstead Hall you do venture up hill and you are on the course of the Bury Nearly 10 race. There are some wonderful views from up here of Nowton Church and Sicklesmere down the hill. When you reach the Pound/Low Green turn left to run the road past Nowton Country Park. Past the Victoria Sports Green along Cullum Road and back to the Water Tower.

Distance is roughly 9 to 9.5 miles though without a GPS a piece of string on a map is fairly inaccurate!.

As I set out the recent heatwave appeared ready to break and I was in two minds as to whether to run. For the first half of the course the wind picked up and leaves and dust were picked and blown up. It was very squally I got dust in my eyes and down my fruit but there was no sign of rain. It was feeling very humid and in need of rain.

However as I turned for home near Sainsburys I started to see lightning forking through the sky and an impressive sight it was. Rumbles of thunder suddenly became much loader and I appeared to be running into a storm . I still half belived I might get all the way around with out any rain but this suddenly changed when I reached Eastgate and the Fox Inn.

The rain simply belted down and in seconds I was soaked through. I could hardly see, as the rain beated down and the roads became rivers and my feet simply squelched through puddles. The pavements were clear and all mine as I ran home soaked through but feeling good after my free shower.

I guess with the thought of lightning in my mind I ran fairly quickly and registered a good time

The course – head out of Bury on the Beetons Way past Tollgate and through the village of Fornham St Martin.

Return to Bury through Fornham All Saints along the A11101 Mildenhall Road , back to Tollgate and return up Beetons Way hill and home.

A fairly easy morning run. I have struggled to get any running in this week because of work commitments so I was glad to register a run fo r the week. I am without camera this week so no pictures unfortunately.

Its about time I reviewed my running for the first half of the year compared to the objectives I set myself for the year

2006 Targets

1. To keep fit and enjoy my running.

That will always be my number one aim. People some times ask why do you run? Quite often they look upon you as weird when you mention that you run. Often they will say they have tried and found it boring. Quite simply I run because I can and I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t love it. I get to see the changing seasons, experience all weathers and enjoy the beautiful Suffolk countryside. I meet similar folks who enjoy running. I gave up a long time ago trying to persuade others to run you either enjoy it or you don’t.

Achieved -I don’t think I have ever been more enthusiastic about my running than I am now. Numbers of people running seems to be up if attendances at running clubs are any kind of measure.

2. I am a signed up member of St Edmunds Pacers and look forward to continuing doing so for next year.

Achieved – I continue to be a member and recommend anyone who rus who doesn’t belong to a club to join up.

3. I am setting myself an overall target to run 1500 miles next year. That’s challenging for me but hopefully a realistic target that is achievable barring injuries ! I managed 1328 this year so it is an additional 200 miles at an average of 29 miles a week.

I am on target at the end of June. I had run a total of 817 miles. Last years performance in blue

Total miles run 817 Total runs 115 runs. 2005 Total miles run 535 Total runs 80 runs.

4. Long Runs – I want to up my long runs so that next year I run some 2 hour or 15 mile runs .

Partially achieved – I think I needed to redefine what constitues a long run for me. Up to know when I record my times using the free Dead Runners Society Excel Spreadsheet I have labelled any run over an hour as a long run. On this basis I have run 31 long runs between january and June. Perhaps next year I will redfine a long run as being a certain mileage – perhaps over 10 miles – any views on this ? My longest run was the half marathon at Norwich on 11th of June 2006. My target was to do some 15 mile runs so really I haven’t yet achieved this target.

5. Hills – these are great sessions to include in your training. I know it but I just didn’t do it this year. Can I do it next year? Probably not on my own. I remember that we used to run these as a cub session when I belonged to Stopsley Striders back in 1994. I am not going to set my target for hills anything greater than to do 1 hill session a month.

Failed – I started well and I did run a specific hill session for the first 3 months of the year then I let slip and haven’t done one since. I was right it is difficult to do on your own. Will set my sights on doing some more but not until the weather cools.

6. Races – for me racing isn’t the be and end all of why I run but I would still like to run more races than I did this year which was only 3 . My target for 2006 is to do 6 races. At the moment I still think my limit for a race is around the half marathon distance. So I would like to include a half marathon as a race next year.

7. Track and Interval Work – If I miss the Wednesday track session at West Suffolk Athletics Track then I want to commit to doing the Monday session. To my mind track work is so beneficial.

Failed – Out of 26 weeks I have missed a lot of Wednesday sessions and I have attended just 13 times. I just struggle to always get away from work to attend this but will see if I can improve in the 2nd half of the year.

8. To get my weight down to 12 stone – I could still do with losing a few pounds . My BMI still shows I am overweight for my height. This means losing about 4-6 pounds. This should be possible if I keep to my new mileage targets.

Failed my weight has stayed static really at about 12 stone 4lbs?!

9. To replace my watch – I don’t have a very good running watch- sometime this year I would like to get one of those Garmin 201 devices

Failed still can’t afford one

10. Lastly this one is a bit crazy but when the weather brightens up in the spring I am seriouslyconsidering an occasional run when I take with me a rucksack to pick up rubbish I spot in the hedgerows. I hate to see rubbish which has been dropped from car windows left on the side of roads. It can remain for years in some rural spots. Ok I could say it is not my rubbish but in a way we are all responsible for the upkeep of the countryside and I am willing to give it a go. I expect I will need to wear gloves and an old rucksack. My other though then is what to do with the rubbish as I don’t particularly want to fill my own dustbin with what I collect. Maybe my run will need to by pass a recycling centre.

Not yet but still planned

Most memorable run of the year has to be the Norwich Half Marathon simply because it was my longest run for at least 2 years and on the day it was 30c with little shade. My time was slow but simply completing the course was a big achievement.

Course: Set of towards Horringer over fields towards Lord Hervey’s wood and Great Horringer Hall. Along Westley Lane and into Horringer Village. At the Church turn right into Ickworth Park, down to Ickworth House and then do a circuit of Albana Wood before returning on the same route.

Very warm and although I ran early it was still warm. The ground is so dry that at times along the field edges I was running to avoid the cracks in the ground!

In the village of Horringer they are making really good progress on building new houses where there used to a large garage selling cars.

I always enjoy visiting Ixworth Park. You usually see a few cars in the National Trust car park with visitors to the home and gardens. Sometimes they have a kiosk which is staffed by a national trust member collecting the fees for visiting. If I see him the guy always looks as if he would like me to pay but as he can see I am hardly likely to be carrying any money.

The highlight of this run is going around the Albana Walk where you are always likely to see deer both in an enclosure and in the woods. Being early morning some of the hedges were covered in spider webs.

Very hot I found it a struggle to run in the warm conditions as a result I ran slowly . Horringer Farm has just started to cut the wheat and barley fields and the combine harvester was out sending a great cloud of field chaff and dust into the air.